1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the broadcast of programs, and in particular but not exclusively, relates to management of participant input for an interactive show, such as an interactive television show or an interactive radio show.
2. Background Information
There are many shows on television and on radio, such as “call-in” shows, that invite viewers or listeners (hereinafter “participants”) to submit questions or comments. For a radio program, listeners can dial a telephone number of the radio station and speak live on the air with a radio personality or a guest. Similarly for a television program, a host of the television program can solicit viewers to submit questions or comments related to a topic being discussed in the television program. Many television programs typically receive viewer input via telephone and place the viewer on “speaker phone” during the broadcast.
While these call-in shows claim to be “interactive shows,” they are not truly interactive. Often, a participant cannot even connect to the show (due to a large number of inbound callers tying up a telephone line, for example). Therefore, the participant is prevented from interacting with anything. Even if the participant is able to submit a comment/question, the participant may nevertheless be placed on hold on the telephone and wait for a significant amount of time for the host of the show to answer the participant's telephone. This can become a significant resource allocation problem for the show, particularly if many callers call in and are kept on hold—the show's telephone lines are kept tied up and many telephone lines are, therefore, needed to provide adequate service.
Often, call-in shows attempt to keep their telephone lines open by having a person/operator take a participant's question/comment and then terminate the connection, so that another call can be taken. However, disconnection of the participants in this manner removes the interactive nature of the show, since the participant typically is not thereafter contacted for follow-up input or to notify them when their comment/question will be discussed on the show.
Some call-in shows allow participants to submit their input via email. Then, the emails are screened by the staff of the show and presented (sometimes in edited form) during the show. Because the show may receive a large number of emails, only some of which may actually be read by the show's staff, return email responses to all participants are rare, and so email techniques of this type are not truly interactive either. Also, the extensive use of human staff to manage all facets of processing participant input makes the show more cumbersome to run, and the cumbersome handling of participant input can reduce the show's attractiveness to viewers. Furthermore, this lack of true interaction usually requires the participant to constantly check the television or radio show to determine if or when the participant's question/comment will be addressed during the show. If the participant decides to perform other activities and does not “stay tuned” to the show, then participant risks missing the show's segment that may be related to the participant's question/comment or may otherwise be of potential interest to the participant.
Accordingly, improvements are needed with regards to management of participant input for shows.